On Thursday, January 4th, several Southridge students, teachers and I had the privilege of attending Emma Hoglund's performance of Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Vancouver Symphony, conducted by William Rowson.

Emma was the winner of the VSO School of Music's Future of Excellence competition, and as winner, was given the opportunity to perform with the VSO as part of their Tea and Trumpets series in Vancouver's beautiful Orpheum theatre. For any musician to win this competition would be a great honour, but for Emma to win it at the age of 14 was truly exceptional.

After an eloquent introduction by Christopher Gaze, host of the Tea and Trumpets concerts, Emma walked on stage and performed with the poise of an artist beyond her years. Not only did she perform flawlessly, but she did so with phrasing and musicality that brought the packed Orpheum audience to their feet.

Following her performance, Christopher Gaze stated that in live music, as in theatre, there are those few truly special performances that audiences can say with pride "I was there." This was one of those performances. Congratulations Emma, from all of us in the Southridge community.